The move to the cloud: Does it increase or undermine security?

Date: Mar 06, 2014

The move to the cloud has disrupted traditional computing architectures, that much most people
can agree on. But beyond that there's no consensus as to whether the cloud
has increased or decreased security risks, which makes the job of enterprise IT pros tough. Do
they recommend corporate data or functions be moved to the cloud, or not?

Pete Lindstrom explains why the question "Does the cloud make you more secure?" can't be
answered with a simple yes or no: It's because the answer is not the same for
everyone.

Instead, as
an IT pro you must weigh many factors before you have the right answer for your enterprise.
These factors include whether, and how, your technical architecture might change because of the
cloud and whether that, in turn, would it make you more or less vulnerable to attack. How would
your pool of users accessing corporate data change? Will your data in the cloud look more appealing
and profitable to attackers, or less? These and many other evaluative questions must be considered
before you decide whether a move to the cloud makes sense.

The outline that Lindstrom offers includes simple equations to speed your evaluation. He also
peppers his talk with other actionable advice—suggesting, for instance, you first move
special-purpose and non-core functions with mobile
users to the cloud. He also outlines where to fortify defenses (and makes a strong plea for
extensive encryption).

This presentation is just what chief information security officers, and other
corporate personnel, need before a decision about moving corporate data to the cloud is
made.

About the speaker: Pete Lindstrom, CISSP, is research director for Spire Security, a firm providing analysis
and research in the information security field. He has held similar industry analyst positions at
Burton Group and Hurwitz Group. He has worked as deputy to the CISO for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and
honed his finance and technology skills in the United States Marine Corps. He holds a finance
degree from the University of Notre Dame.

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